Month: December 2018

If you are visiting from StumbleUpon and like this article and tool, please consider giving it a thumbs up. Thanks! Memorizing does not have to be as hard as most people make it. The problem is that most people only know how to memorize by reading the same thing over and over again. You have

A reader named Susan left an interesting comment on Never Hire an MBA. She doesn’t like the article, but what I found interesting was this part of her comment: Are you familiar with discrimination laws, well although there is not currently a discrimination law that would protect individuals from potential employers from discriminating against individuals

There are two ways to approach college. The first is to be intentional and plan out your studies. The second is to just let college “happen” to you. Obviously a little planning can go a long ways toward giving you the best educational experience. In this post, we are going to look at five tips

If you are like me, you’ve probably heard enough about “positive thinking” that you tend to just ignore it. Today I read an article in the New York Times that reminded me just how powerful our expectations are–both positive and negative. The article talks about what is called the “nocebo” effect. You are probably familiar

If you want to reach your full potential you must constantly evaluate yourself. There are always obstacles. Sometimes, it might be a lack of skill, so you go back to school. At other times, it might be interpersonal skills that you need to develop. However, one of the biggest hurdles is something that doesn’t get

In exactly one week, my next book, Hyperfocus lands in bookstores everywhere in the U.S., U.K., and Canada! In celebration of that news, I wanted to share with you three big takeaways I’ll expand on over the book’s 200-some pages. In case you missed it: Hyperfocus is a practical guide for managing your attention—the most

[embedded content] If you are really focused on expanding your capabilities, your salary is probably a secondary motivation when it comes to employment. Your major motivation is going to be your learning and growth opportunities. The graph below shows how learning opportunities change over time. At the beginning of any job, you will have many

I am incredibly excited to announce that my next book, Hyperfocus, is out today! It’s available wherever books, e-books, and audiobooks are sold—including everywhere in the U.S. and Canada. (It’s out in the UK and internationally on September 6.) If you didn’t have a chance to preorder the book, here are the links to snap

If you want to be productive, you must complete work. Almost everything we do has multiple stages to completion and in many situations, you don’t actually create value until you finish the last stage. Farmers can’t sell their grain until it is harvested. Automakers can’t sell a bunch of cars that have made it 90%

One undervalued tradition of Christmastime is the watching of many holiday-themed TV shows and movies. How many Canadians spend entire days in our pajamas over the holidays, flipping through the channels or streaming options trying to find the perfect programming for the moment? Probably a great many of us. READ MORE: Global News’ 2018 Geek

Jamie Jones—Getty Images/Ikon Images An excerpt from my new book Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction just went live on TIME Magazine’s website! In case you’d like to read it, I’ve posted a snippet and a link to the full article below. I’m a lazy person. This surprises some people, especially considering

Everyone “knows” that college graduates make more money than people without a college degree. So, if you take everyone with a college degree and put them in bucket A, and put everyone without a college degree in bucket B, the average wage of bucket A will be higher than B. So, does that mean you

The official colour of 2019 screams sunsets and sea reefs. The Pantone Color Institute chose “living coral” as 2019’s colour of the year on Wednesday. The institute has been choosing annual colours since 2000. One of the biggest takeaways this year was finding a colour that made people feel good. “With everything that’s going on today, we’re

Kellogg’s Rice Krispies #TreatsForToys is the ultimate holiday activity for giving back to those in need! Simply create a toy-shaped Rice Krispies treat and share your creation on social media with #TreatsForToys or at TreatsForToys.ca. For each creation shared, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies will donate $20 to The Salvation Army to buy a real toy for

An excerpt from my new book Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction recently went live on the TED Talks website! In case you’d like to read it, I’ve posted a snippet and a link to the full article below. When your mind is even slightly resisting a task, it will look for

When Angela* went to the washroom at work and discovered she was bleeding heavily, she knew something was wrong; the media professional was around six weeks pregnant. “I found a private washroom where I could gather myself, and the bleeding kept coming,” she told Global News. She immediately contacted her doctor, who told her to

An excerpt from my new book Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction just went live on Thrive Global’s website! In case you’d like to read it, I’ve posted a snippet and a link to the full article below. The research is clear: meditation improves virtually every aspect of how we manage our

An all-men’s a capella group at Princeton is pulling a popular Disney song from its lineup after consent concerns. The Princeton Tigertones had been performing Kiss the Girl from Disney’s The Little Mermaid for years but recently cut the track from its routine. A student newspaper suggested the song’s lyrics and the group’s onstage traditions promoted “toxic masculinity,”

Sarah Lawrence/Getty Images I recently pulled a few ideas from my new book, Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction, and adapted them for a piece in the Harvard Business Review. In case you’d like to read it, I’ve posted a snippet and a link to the full article below. In the flurry

’Tis the time for turkey and gravy and cookies and cakes. And after waiting all year to indulge in some of your favourite holiday foods, it’s understandable that it would be tough to hold back when it comes to chowing down. But eating those fancy feasts can really wreak havoc on your digestive system, leaving

Takeaway: Knitting has quickly become one of my favorite hobbies—and not only because it lets me create things and relax. I also knit for productivity reasons. The activity helps my mind deliberately wander, a mental mode I call “scatterfocus.” This mode has been shown to help you plan for the future, connect ideas, and recharge.

Fast Company recently published an excerpt from Hyperfocus, and it’s linked below if you’d like to check it out! Simple decisions are best made using cold, hard logic. This way, we can work through the incremental steps that lead to an answer. But the same isn’t true for complex decisions, ones that require more creativity in